White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was among the federal employees who received a notification from the Office of Personnel Management that his personal information may have been compromised in a massive computer hacking.
Earnest said on Tuesday he didn’t know how many other employees at the White House may have received similar notifications.
Since the hack was first revealed earlier this month, its dimensions have expanded to include as many as 18 million current, former and prospective federal employees. The Office of Personnel Management, in first disclosing the breach, said only up to 4 million people may have had their information compromised.
FBI Director James Comey offered the 18 million figure in closed-door briefings with lawmakers, officials said. But the Obama administration has yet to publicly confirm the higher number.
Earnest, speaking at the White House on Tuesday, defended the administration’s transparency following the hack.
“What we have tried to do with each stage is to allow what is known about the investigation of the intrusion drive what information is being made public,” he said, noting that he had previously acknowledged an additional hacking incident beyond the episode first disclosed on June 4.
“It’s certainly possible, maybe even likely that additional data may be at risk,” Earnest said. “But only when our investigators have reached a better conclusion about how much data we’re talking about, what sort of data we’re talking about, who may be affected, that’s when we’ll be able to put that information out publicly.”